32 DESTEUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA : 



A few words on tlie value of birds, as fowls, turkeys, 

 &c., in the destruction of locusts may not be uninter- 

 esting. The common turkey is probably one of the best 

 known and most valuable of insect destroyers, and turkeys 

 about a third grown will soon fatten upon either locusts 

 or grasshoppers, so that, in addition to keeping down the 

 pest, they may also be turned into a source of profit. It 

 may be well to remind growers that very young chicks 

 should not be fed on either locusts or otlier insects. 

 Many of the native birds, as the wild turkey, magpie, 

 crow, heron. Nankeen kestrel, &c., are most valuable as 

 locust or grasshopper destroyers, and it is no uncommon 

 occurrence to see a swarm of crows so filled with grass- 

 hoppers as to be hardly able to fly. The common barn fowl 

 is largely used in South Africa, where the locust plague 

 is a most serious matter. Mr. Peringuey says — "If a few 

 days before ploughing you put your fowls in a receptacle 

 fixed on wheels which can be brought into the field, and 

 whence the fowls will be let out in the morning, they will 

 soon learn to go back to their perch in the evening, after 

 having during the day eaten all insects or eggs that youi 

 jDlough will have turned up. Move them, fowl-house and 

 all, in the night to where ploughing will be proceeded 

 with the following morning, so that they may have their 

 resting-place near." 



The plan of trampling the young locusts by means of 

 mobs of cattle, horses, or sheep, is an admirable one, and 

 has been tried with great success, and, referring again to 

 the egg collecting, it is stated that in the years 1881-2 as 

 many as 1,330 tons of eggs are said to have been collected 

 in Cyprus alone. Mr. Olliff further remarks that one of 

 the easiest ways of collecting the eggs when they are 

 found in large numbers is to take off about an inch of the 

 soil with the spade, then to cart the earth and eggs to 

 some sheltered place where it will have a chance of 

 drying, and then to separate the egg masses by means of 

 a sieve on the same principle as that used for gravel 

 sifting, but the mesh, of course, must be finer. In 



